The present disclosure relates to insulating resin coating methods and stators.
Stator having welded portions at the ends of coil wires being coated with an insulating resin are conventionally known in the art. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-070515 (JP 2012-070515 A) describes such a stator.
The stator described in JP 2012-070515 A includes an annular mold portion formed by performing resin molding on entire coil end portions. The coil end portions have welded portions formed by welding the ends of coil wires together. In JP 2012-070515 A, the entire coil end portions are coated with the mold portion, whereby the welded portions are insulation-coated.
The configuration in which resin molding is performed on the entire coil end portions as in JP 2012-070515 A is disadvantageous in that a larger amount of material is required for insulation coating and in that coil cooling efficiency is low because the entire coil end portions are covered with resin.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-223685 (JP 2011-223685 A) describes another configuration for coating welded portions with an insulating resin. A stator described in JP 2011-223685 A has coils formed by welding the ends of a plurality of conductor segments that are formed by rectangular wires. The stator has many welded portions formed by welding the ends of the conductor segments. Each welded portion is insulation-coated by attaching a cap-shaped insulating resin to each welded portion.
Unlike the stator of JP 2012-070515 A in which the portions other than the welded portions are also coated with the insulating resin, only the welded portions can be insulation-coated in the stator described in JP 2011-223685 A. The required amount of material can therefore be reduced in the stator of JP 2011-223685 A.